Influencer disclosure in the Netherlands: rules for gifted products
In the Netherlands, a free product sent so that a creator posts about it creates a “relevant relationship”. The post has to say so, at the start, in words people understand. And the Dutch advertising code makes your brand responsible for telling creators that, and for acting when they don’t.
Who regulates what
Three sets of rules apply to influencer posts in the Netherlands. They overlap, and a brand that gifts products can be reached by all three.
| Who | Rules | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Stichting Reclame Code (SRC) | Reclamecode Social Media & Influencer Marketing (RSM), part of the Nederlandse Reclame Code | Every creator with a relevant relationship to a brand, with no minimum number of followers, and the brand itself. Complaints go to the Reclame Code Commissie. |
| Commissariaat voor de Media (CvdM) | Mediawet (Media Act) and its policy rules for video-uploaders | Video creators on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok who meet its criteria (below). It can fine them. |
| Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) | Consumer law: misleading commercial practices are banned | Both the creator and the company that uses the creator. It can fine companies. |
A free product is a relevant relationship
The RSM defines a “Relevante Relatie” as a relationship between the brand (the “Adverteerder”) and the creator (the “Verspreider”) aimed at spreading advertising, in exchange for payment or any other benefit. Its explanation says this relationship exists in any case when a brand offers free products to creators so that they post about them. Receiving free products is on its list of benefits, next to payment, loaned products, invitations, discount codes, affiliate links and commission.
- Followers don’t matter. The RSM says there is no minimum or maximum number of followers. A nano-influencer or an ordinary consumer can be covered.
- An unsolicited gift still counts. The RSM’s article 6 says the brand can’t escape its duties because the creator wasn’t working on its instructions.
- When the gift must be labelled. The RSM says a post about a gift must in any case be labelled when it gives the gift specific attention: talking about it, showing it, or mentioning it in the caption, or when it otherwise clearly promotes it.
- Consumer law agrees. The ACM’s Leidraad Bescherming Online Consument (May 2024) says an influencer who gets free products is paid in a form other than money, and that a post can be advertising even without an agreement.
Words that work
The RSM sorts disclosures into categories. For a gift and for a paid post, these are the examples it gives, with or without a hashtag:
| Situation | Labels the RSM gives as examples |
|---|---|
| A gift (free products, or a product to use for a while) | “Gekregen van @merk”, or a comparable clear mention. If the creator posts at the brand’s request, the paid labels below work too. |
| Paid, and the brand asked for the post | “AD”/“ad”, “Reclame”, “Advertentie”, “Advertorial”, “(Betaald) partnerschap”, “(Betaalde) promotie”, “(Betaalde) samenwerking”, or the platform’s feature (such as “betaald partnerschap met”), together with tagging or naming the brand. |
| An invitation (a trip, hotel, event) | “Uitgenodigd door @merk”, or a comparable clear mention. |
| Affiliate links and discount codes that earn commission | The paid labels above, or “Ik ontvang commissie voor de verkopen”. “Affiliate” or “commissie” alone is not enough. |
For video creators, the Commissariaat voor de Media gives similar words: “reclame”, “advertentie”, “betaalde promotie”, “betaalde samenwerking”, “betaald partnerschap” or “gekregen”, and says “#ad” can be fine too. For videos aimed at children and teenagers, it says “reclame” is often clearer than “ad”, and a mention in the audience’s own language is clearer.
Where the label goes
The RSM says the mention must be visible at a glance, in a readable font and a colour that stands out from the background. Posts that follow these rules are in any case clear:
- Posts and photos: the label is the first word or first sentence of each block of text, in the caption or in the photo itself.
- Videos: the label is in the video, by text or sound, at the start, during the promotion, or (as text) visible throughout. And it is the first word or first sentence of the description.
- Stories: every separate story is labelled.
- Live streams: text on screen or a spoken message, repeated regularly in a long stream, so people who join late see it.
- Several posts or platforms: every post is labelled, on every platform.
- Not only in the bio. The RSM says a mention in the account’s bio is not enough.
- Without a hashtag, set it apart. An abbreviation without “#” must stand out from the rest of the text, for example “AD|” or “AD -”.
The Commissariaat voor de Media asks the same of video creators: a mention in the video and in the description, at the start of the description, so viewers don’t have to tap “meer” to read it. The ACM adds that a tag of the brand alone doesn’t make clear that a post is advertising.
Platform labels
The RSM notes that several platforms require their own feature (such as “betaald partnerschap met”) when a creator works with a brand, and it lists the platform feature as one way to label a paid post. The Commissariaat says creators can use the options Instagram, TikTok and YouTube offer. Neither says the feature replaces the rules on placement above, so the safest brief asks for both: the platform label and a label at the start of the caption. How each platform’s label works is in our guide to the paid partnership label.
The Commissariaat voor de Media’s rules for video creators
Since 16 June 2025, the Commissariaat no longer uses a follower threshold for active supervision. Before, it covered accounts with 500,000 followers or more. Now it supervises video creators who:
- have an account on YouTube, Instagram and/or TikTok;
- posted at least 24 videos on it in the past 12 months;
- earn money or another benefit from those videos, such as products;
- are registered with the Kamer van Koophandel (KvK).
Those with more than 100,000 followers must also register with the Commissariaat, according to its decision tree. Smaller accounts that meet the other criteria don’t register, but the Media Act rules still apply to them. A creator who advertises in videos must also join the Stichting Reclame Code.
On advertising, sponsorship and product placement, the Commissariaat says that if a creator got a product for free, it probably sees the video as advertising. Its checklist: if a product is shown and the creator got it free, was paid to show it, or aims to sell it, the video needs a mention in the video and in the description.
It enforces. In 2024 it fined RK Content Creation €6,075 because advertising in four videos wasn’t recognisable, after a warning the creator didn’t act on. In April 2026 it reported on more than a thousand videos aimed at children and teenagers: in about 20% it suspected advertising, and in just over half of those the mention was missing or not clear enough. Creators supervised for longer can expect a formal warning or a fine.
The ACM and consumer law
The ACM’s guidance says it must be clear to consumers when an influencer is advertising, otherwise they are misled, and misleading practices are banned. It says both the influencer and the company that uses the influencer are responsible. Its advice to companies: check that the influencers you work with follow the rules, call them out when they don’t, and don’t work with influencers who don’t follow them.
Under the Dutch consumer enforcement law (Wet handhaving consumentenbescherming, article 2.15), an ACM fine can be up to €900,000 or, if higher, a share of the company’s turnover (1%, or 10% for some unfair practices). Those are maximums for consumer law in general, not influencer fines the ACM has given.
What the brand is responsible for
Article 6 of the RSM sets the brand’s duty of care. The brand must:
- make the creator aware of the RSM;
- require the creators who work on its instructions to follow the law, the Nederlandse Reclame Code and the RSM;
- if the creator may use others, point out that they must follow the same rules;
- make an active effort to hold the creator to these rules, and act against breaches.
The explanation adds that without a contract, the brand must point creators explicitly to the code when it invites them to give their opinion on its products. Putting the rules in a contract alone is not enough: the brand must actively inform and, where needed, correct the creator, and act firmly when a breach continues. Brand and creator are each responsible for the disclosure, and the Reclame Code Commissie can decide which of them a breach is attributed to.
Checklist for gifted products
- 01
Put the rules in the parcel
In the note or email that goes with the product, point to the RSM and give the exact words: “Gekregen van @jouwmerk” as the first sentence of the caption, and in the video.
- 02
Use paid labels when there’s more than a gift
If the creator is paid, gets a commission or posts at your request, ask for “#reclame” or “#advertentie” at the start, plus the platform’s label.
- 03
Ask for it in the video too
On TikTok, Reels and Shorts, the label belongs at the start of the video or during the promotion, by text or sound, and first in the description.
- 04
Check what they post
Look for posts about your product by every creator you gifted, including those who don’t tag you, and check the label is there and comes first.
- 05
Follow up and keep a record
When a label is missing, ask for a fix and note when you asked. If a creator keeps leaving it out, act on it.
You can check one post now. Paste a link or a caption, graded by the Netherlands’ words:
- Clearly disclosedThe platform’s partnership label, the country’s ad word up front (“#ad” in the US), or a gift word next to the brand’s name where the country accepts one.
- Weakly disclosedA gift word without the brand (“#gifted”, “#pr”), a word the country doesn’t accept (“#ad” in Germany), or a clear one buried below where the caption is cut off.
- Not disclosedNothing in the caption says it was a gift or an ad.
This says what the post shows by the country’s words, not whether it’s legally enough: that also depends on how prominent the label is. See the rules by country
Pozto checks every gifted post like this, including what creators say and show in the video. Start free
How Pozto helps
Pozto watches the creators you gifted on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts and finds the posts that show your product, tagged or not. For each post, it reads the caption for disclosure words and notes whether they come before the caption is cut off. It notes YouTube’s paid promotion flag and Instagram’s “Paid partnership” label where it can read them, and, for videos it checks, whether the creator said or showed the disclosure.
In Settings, under “Disclosure rules”, set “Grade posts by the rules of” to the Netherlands. Pozto then counts “#ad”, “#reclame”, “#advertentie”, “Advertorial”, “Betaald partnerschap”, “Betaalde promotie” and “Betaalde samenwerking”, or a caption that starts with “Ad”, “Reclame” or “Advertentie”, as clear, and “Gekregen van” as clear for a gift when the caption names your brand. Other wording, such as “#sponsored”, “#gifted” or “cadeau”, shows as weak, and so does “Gekregen van” from a creator you also paid, or a clear word after the cut-off. In a video, Pozto counts those ad words when the creator says or shows them; a spoken or on-screen gift line alone shows as weak.
It grades each post clear, weak or none. It doesn’t decide whether a post meets the RSM or the Media Act, but it shows you which posts to look at and which creators to ask for a fix. Start free with up to 10 creators. For other countries, see influencer disclosure rules by country.
Questions
Do influencers in the Netherlands have to disclose free products?
Yes, when the product was given so they post about it. The RSM says free products create a “relevant relationship”, and a post that gives the gift attention (talking about it, showing it, or mentioning it in the caption) must say so.
Is “Gekregen van @merk” enough, or does it need #reclame?
For a gift, the RSM gives “Gekregen van @merk” as an example of a clear label. If the creator was paid, gets a commission, or posts at the brand’s request, use a paid label such as “#reclame” or “#advertentie”.
Where does the label go?
First. The RSM says it should be the first word or first sentence of the caption, and in a video at the start, during the promotion, or on screen throughout. A mention only in the bio is not enough.
Does the Media Act only apply to big influencers?
Not any more. Since 16 June 2025, the Commissariaat voor de Media supervises video creators on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok with 24 or more videos in 12 months, who earn money or products from them and are registered with the KvK, whatever their followers. Only those above 100,000 followers must register.
Is the brand responsible if a creator doesn’t disclose?
Yes. The RSM makes the brand inform creators about the code and act against breaches, even when the creator didn’t work on its instructions. The ACM says the company that uses an influencer is responsible too, and should check its influencers follow the rules.
Is Instagram’s “Paid partnership” label enough in the Netherlands?
The RSM lists the platform feature as one way to label a paid post, and the Commissariaat says creators can use it. The placement rules still apply, so ask for a label at the start of the caption as well.
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